Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Staunton, June 27 – Businesses interested
in profits and civil society institutions that see language as key to the
future of their country are promoting Belarusianization even when the
government, fearful of offending Moscow is not, and that ranking – business,
civil society, and only then the state works to the country’s advantage, Vadim
Mozheyko says.

Mozheyko
says that “the state inthe best case
stands in third place after civil society and business in promoting the growth
in popularity of the Belarusian language,” although in recent years, it has in
some cases promoted it and in others “not interfered” with business or civil
society.

While
it would be wrong to speak of Belarusianization as an accomplished fact, the
use of the national language in Belarus has “become fashionable or even a trend
in certain portions of society.”Business has played a major role: Over the last seven years, the number
of Belarusian language brands have increased more than 150 percent and the
number of Belarusian advertisements by more than 300 percent.

A
major reason that business has played this role is that it “thinks not about
how to relate to Belarusianization but rather about how to work with it. And if
it sees that Belarusian language communication, the use of the language and the
advancement of Belarusian culture really works, then it accepts this and uses it
in its business activity.”

And
that is the case even though many in the intellectual elites who have promoted
Belarusian culture “continue to deny or to be afraid to recognize that this
soft Belarusianization already has happened.” They note that there aren’t
enough real Belarusian language teachers to transform the educational system.

Within
the Lukashenka regime, there are many people who would like to support
Belarusianization but remain frightened by what they assume would be the
reaction of Moscow.That is why there is
no reason to expect the state to pursue a consistent language policy anytime in
the near future.

But
paradoxically, the fact that the state “is not playing first chair in
popularizing Belarusian” has its positive side:Many intellectuals would be suspicious of what the current government is
doing if it pushed Belarusian anytime soon and would assume that Minsk would
just as quickly change course if it felt it had to, thus undermining any
effort.

So
for the time being, Mozheyko says, “the initiative lies on the shoulders” of
business and civil society. But that means that even the Belarusian government
will find it ever more difficult to stop, whatever fears it may have about
Moscow’s possible response.